Over the past year, in addition to contributing to the ILC Reference Design Report, the ILC-Americas regional team (ART) has focused on programme planning for the next few years. We anticipate that this time period will roughly correspond to the period when an engineering design of the ILC will be carried out, and when the key R&D questions, which require answers prior to project approval, will be confronted and resolved.

Paul Grannis (left) of the DOE and Gerry Dugan during last week's Linear Collider Forum of America meeting at Fermilab.

In April 2006, the US DOE and NSF reviewed the current ART programme and future planning began. From May to August 2006, we completed planning for the FY2007 programme, and the GDE Global R&D Board provided guidance on which areas of the proposed programme should be supported. Their comments and suggestions were invaluable in developing a recommendation for a balanced, globally coordinated, and cost-effective ILC R&D programme in the US for FY2007, which matches the funding expected to be available. We presented the recommended FY07 programme to the DOE in August, and discussions are currently underway to finalise the details.

Rather than requesting overall proposals from laboratories for FY08 and FY09, the next fiscal year programmes are being organised by functional ILC accelerator subsystems (e.g., positron source, main linac RF, beam delivery system, etc.). This method provides a more natural way to delegate the planning responsibilities. We selected a “WBS manager” and a deputy -- one or more for each accelerator subsystem -- to carry out the planning. Under the guidance of the ILC-Americas Regional Director and the ILC-Americas Accelerator Design Leader, the WBS managers will plan a collaborative program that will utilise the resources in the Americas region’s national laboratories and universities to carry out the GDE-directed R&D and design activities associated with the preparation of the ILC engineering design.

This effort must provide sufficient engineering to develop accurate cost models for components, with an emphasis on the cost drivers. The R&D programme should demonstrate feasibility of the key baseline technologies, finalise baseline design choices and ensure reliability of the machine, and continue development of alternatives for cost reduction or performance enhancement.

The plan for the ILC-Americas programme must be well-coordinated with the GDE’s priorities and with international activities. GDE planning for certain R&D activities, such as the plans for the S0/S1 SRF work, are well developed. In this case, the Americas region work will be very well aligned with the GDE’s plans. For other R&D activities, such as the S2 SRF work, the damping ring work, BDS work, and so on, the GDE plans are currently less well developed. There are nevertheless strong connections between groups in the different regions, making coordinated planning possible. Once developed, the ILC-Americas programme plans in these areas will need to adapt to GDE planning.

The scope of work in FY08-09 will also need to include preparatory site-specific activities for an Americas ILC site that will be needed prior to a siting decision. This planning will primarily be civil engineering activities but may also include Americas-site-specific accelerator design, industrialisation activities, and the development of vendors, especially in the SRF area. Because these site-specific efforts are outside the scope of the GDE, guidance for these activities will be provided by the Linear Collider Steering Group of the Americas.

Last week, planning for FY08-09 progressed during a two-day meeting at Fermilab. At this meeting, we discussed the required resources for each accelerator subsystem and compared them to target resource expectations for FY08-09. A first draft of the plan should be available in November. The GDE Global R&D Board will be invited to review and comment on this first draft, and their input will be used to refine future iterations. The first draft will also be given to the US funding agencies for their use in developing out-year funding plans.